I am considering a trip to Cancun in the fall and traveling on Frontier airlines. I guess they filed for bankruptcy protection, does this mean I can’t get trip insurance if I use Frontier? Rod

Rod, Here’s how the Travel Insurance works:

You can still get travel insurance to cover you for everything except cancellations, travel delays, missed connections or trip interruption due to Frontier Airlines’ Bankruptcy filing or if Frontier ceases its operations.

That means if you get hit by a cement truck and have to cancel your trip, you’ll be covered. The same goes with any of the other events that are covered reasons.

I found these 7 Helpful Travel Tips on Lifehack.org. Since air travel can be frustrating, I hope you find the following travel tips from helpful:

1. Don’t travel with gel pens. You could wake up in a pool of ink, as the air pressure changes can cause the ink to burst out. I learned this lesson MANY years ago but thought they changed the technology — and I recently ruined three perfectly good pairs of pants. NEVER again! I have finally learned my lesson!!

2. ALWAYS look at the airline luggage routing tags that the ticket agent is putting on your checked baggage, and look at your claim stubs too. Don’t just assume they are putting the right tag on the right bag.

3. Take note of something interesting about the contents of your bag. It makes it easier to identify if there’s a problem.

4. Travel with Sharpie markers and zip-closure plastic bags. They are great for marking and identifying things quickly.

5. If your flight is cancelled, don’t wait in the long line in front of the ticket agent to get on another plane. Just step aside and call your airline directly from your cell phone. It’s just like cutting in line, but nobody will get mad at you.

6. Bring pre-printed return address labels with you. They’re great for quickly filling out airline luggage tags and other forms.

7. Get a travel pillow that supports your neck. Neck pillows like the Bucky brand are filled with buckwheat hulls and support your neck while you’re trying to sleep on the plane.

My sister is having hip replacement surgery which the doctor scheduled so she should be recovered way in advance. If there are complications from the surgery would she be covered? Should she get the insurance before she has the surgery? I know there are only a few policies that waive pre-existing so that’s what we are interested in. Joyce

Unfortunately, since your sister already has surgery scheduled, anything related to her hip isn’t covered because she won’t meet the “Medically Stable” rules. Here’s more info on “Medically Stable”: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/medically-stable.shtml

In other words, no policy I know will cover her until she’s fully recovered from her surgery.

We presently have a plan for unlimited 35 day long trips and can buy extra days in 15 day increments. Are your plans along the same idea or do you have to buy everytime you go on a trip? Thanks, June

Hi June,

Our Travel Insurance plans only work if you cover the full travel dates. Therefore, you have to buy everytime you go on a trip.

We do have an Annual Travel Insurance plan available for US Residents, but the coverage does not include any Trip Cancellation nor Trip Interruption benefits.

I wrote a post about this on Jan. 20, 2008. You can read it here: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/blog/annual-travel-insurance-plans-for-us-residents/

My first question is, how far in advance do we need to purchase our trip insurance? We have plane tickets for 2 for August 6, 2008 from LAX. I will have more questions later but first just need to know how far in advance we must purchase trip insurance. Thanks, Madelyn

Hi Madelyn, You can get your trip insurance anytime. I can only think of one reason to get a plan before you make your first payment on your trip: That’s if your next birthday happens before you make your first payment and that birthday pushes you into a more expensive age bracket.

Other than that unlikely possibility, there are deadlines to getting your trip insurance if you need pre-existing conditions’ coverage, so you might want to review this page:
http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/pre-existing.shtml

We might be having 3 drivers, but we don’t want to pay extra. Is Rental Car Insurance priced per driver? Howard

I have some good new for you Howard:
The Rental Car Insurance / Collision Damage Waiver’s price is based on the one car per calendar day. Not on the number of drivers since only one person can drive a car at a time. You don’t pay extra for additional drivers.

This means that “Backseat Drivers” are free, too.

You must list any additional drivers on the on the Rental Car Insurance / Collision Damage policy. And, this is important, you do need to list any additional drivers on the rental agreement or else they won’t be covered even if you had them on the Rental Car Insurance.

You can get more information here: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/rental-car-insurance.shtml

Steve, Regarding the price quote, we re-figured some prices and are actually paying $7,000/person (which includes airfare). We are flying Business Class - should we or should we not include the cost of our flight in the insurance estimate? If we eliminate the cost of the Business Class Tickets then the trip is $3500/person. Linda

Thanks Linda,

You only have to include the cost of Business Class tickets if they are non-refundable. In the past, Business Class and First Class tickets were refundable, but recently we’ve been seeing both Business Class and First Class tickets that are not competely refundable.

Therefore, it’s very important you find out if your Business Class tickets will refund all your money if you cancelled your trip. Ask them “If I got hit by a cement truck and had to cancel my trip, will you (the airline) give me 100% of my money back in cash and not a voucher or future credit toward the purchase of another ticket?”

You can go here to find out more on what else is included in trip costs: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/trip-cost.shtml

On April 8, 2008 I wrote a post called “Does Somebody Want to Transfer Millions of Dollars Into Your Account?“. Since I hate phishing scams and all other fraudulent uses of the Internet I always forward a copy of the suspicious e-mail to the companies that are being defrauded.

For example, at PayPal the e-mail address is spoof@PayPal.com, at eBay it’s spoof@eBay.com and at pretty much every other company it’s abuse@(companydomainname)

Another reason why I stay up too late
Late last night I received an e-mail supposedly from FedEx. I put the entire email at the end of this post so you can read it at your leisure. I naturally went to www.FedEx.com and found this:

“If you believe that you have received suspicious e-mail, or have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately at 1.800.GoFedEx / 1.800.463.3339 or via e-mail at abuse@fedex.com”.

Being the nice person I am, I immediately forwarded that suspicious e-mail you’ll find below to abuse@FedEx.com. Guess what? Almost immediately I received, in my inbox, this delivery failure message:

“Hi. This is the qmail-send program at ______. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out. abuse@fedex.com: failed after I sent the message. Remote host said: 554 The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content”

More than a surprise
That was a surprise. No, it was a shock! - how stupid can that be for FedEx to reject emails it tells you to send to them! Since I wasn’t completely frustrated I went ahead and called FedEx’s toll-free number 1.800.463.3339 at 1:03 am. Eventually, I got to speak to someone live in their customer service department. I explained exactly what happened and they told me that FedEx doesn’t accept spam.

So, I explained again why was trying to forward them this because someone was impersonating FedEx, but they told me abuse@fedex.com is the only e-mail address Fedex has to receive these complaints about scams. After I asked “doesn’t this sound silly that abuse@FedEx.com rejects all forwarded spam e-mails?”, the kind man I was speaking to put me on hold for a few minutes to see if he could find anything else out.

When he came back he told me that I had to wait until after 7 a.m. Central time to call the Technical Support Department at 1-877-339-2774 and maybe they can figure out how to email Fedex.

I called FedEx’s Technical Support Department this morning. They said that abuse@fedex.com is the only e-mail address Fedex has to receive these complaints. And they wanted me to call Customer Service again!

Oh well, I guess FedEx doesn’t really want to know who’s impersonating them and damaging their good name.

PS - here’s that email that FedEx won’t let me give them:

Subject: FedEX PARCEL DELIVERY NOTICE
From: “FedEx Online Team Management.”
Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 11:34 pm

Dear Customer!

We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirm able Package that is registered with us for shipping to your residential location.We had thought that your sender gave you our contact details.It may interest you to know that a letter is also added to your package.However, we cannot quote its content to you via email for privacy reasons.

We understand that the content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $120,000.00 USD, FedEx do not ship money in CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable.The package is registered with us for mailing by your colleague, and your colleague explained that he is from the United States but he is here in Nigeria for a three (3) months Surveying Project as he works with a consultant firm in Nigeria West Africa We are sending you this email because your package is been registered on a Special Order.

What you have to do now, is to contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatchment of your package to your residential address.Note that as soon as our Delivery Team confirms your informations, it will take only one working day (24 hours) for your package to arrive it’s designated destination.For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees have been paid by your colleague before your package was registered.Note that the payment that is made on the Insurance, Premium & Clearance Certificates, are to certify that the Bank Draft is not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF) neither is it funds to sponsor Terrorism in your country. This will help you avoid any form of query from the Monetary Authority of your country.

However, you will have to pay a sum of £82GBP to the FedEx Delivery Department being full payment for the Security Keeping Fee of the FedEx company as stated in our privacy terms & condition page. Also be informed that your colleague wished to pay for the Security Keeping charges, but we do not accept such payment considering the facts that all items & packages that is registered with us have a time limitation and we cannot accept payment not knowing when you will be picking up the package or even responding to us.So we cannot take the risk to have accepted such payment in case of any possible demur rage.

Kindly note that your colleague did not leave us with any further information.We hope that you respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond until the expiry date of the foremost package, we may refer the package to the Nigerian Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return address.

Kindly contact the delivery department (FedEx Delivery Post) with the details given below:

FedEx Delivery Post
Contact Person:Daniel Christopher
Email:dchristopher1960@gmail.com
Tel: +2348053062492

Kindly complete the below form and send it to the email address given above.This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.

FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:

Kindly complete the above form and summit it to the delivery manager on: dchristopher1960@gmail.com

As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the necessary payment procedure so that you can effect the payment for the Security Keeping Fees. As soon as they confirm your payment receipt of £82GBP, they will not hesitate to dispatch your package as well as the attached letter to your residence. It usually takes 24 hours being an over night delivery service.

Note that we were not instructed to email you, but due to the high priority of your package we had to inform you as your sender did not leave us with his phone number because he stated that he just arrived Nigeria and he hasn’t fix his phone yet. We indeed personally sealed your Bank Draft and we found your email contact in the attached letter as the recipient of the foremost package.

Ensure to contact the delivery department with the email address given above and ensure to fill the above form as well to enable a successful reconfirmation.

Do not reply this email because this email account is not monitored.Send your details to:dchristopher1960@gmail.com

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Margaret Blaire.
FedEx Online Team Management.
All rights reserved. © 1995-2008
———————————————————————————————————-
This E-mail is only for the above addressees. It may contain confidential or Privileged information. If you are not an addressee you must not copy, distribute, disclose or use any of the information in it or any attachments.
———————————————————————————————————-
FEDEX INTL>>>

US State Department travel warnings do not mean that it’s a place where the government may not be favorably disposed to the United States. Instead, the United States’ State Department issues these warnings because for a variety of reasons it may not be safe to travel in those areas. These reasons include, but are not limited to, natural disasters (like the Myanmar cyclone or the China earthquake) civil unrest, war.

The US State Department keeps an updated list of travel warnings. Here’s some information from their website:

What Are Travel Warnings, Country Specific Information & Travel Alerts?

Travel Warnings
Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. Countries where avoidance of travel is recommended will have Travel Warnings as well as Country Specific Information.

Travel Alerts
Travel Alerts are a means to disseminate information about terrorist threats and other relatively short-term and/or trans-national conditions posing significant risks to the security of American travelers. The TAs are made when there is a specific threat that cannot be countered. In the past, Travel Alerts have been issued to deal with short-term coups, violence by terrorists and anniversary dates of specific terrorist events.

Country Specific Information
Country Specific Information are available for every country of the world. They include such information as location of the U.S. embassy or consulate in the subject country, unusual immigration practices, health conditions, minor political disturbances, unusual currency and entry regulations, crime and security information, and drug penalties. If an unstable condition exists in a country that is not severe enough to warrant a Travel Warning, a description of the condition(s) may be included under an optional section entitled “Safety/Security.”On limited occasions, we also restate in this section any U.S. embassy advice given to official employees. Country Specific Information generally do not include advice, but present information in a factual manner so the traveler can make his or her own decisions concerning travel to a particular country.

Here’s the link to the US State Department Travel Warnings’ page.

As you know, there’s unimaginable human suffering in Burma after the devastating cyclone. And on top of that the evil military junta that rules Burma is preventing most aid from entering the country. In fact, the UN had two shipments seized by the government at the airport.

I personally have never lived in a disaster zone. I did, however, volunteer for six weeks with the Red Cross in Mexico City after the September 1985 earthquakes. I was living in Monterrey, Mexico and as soon as I heard the news myself and my friends went down to Mexico City to help. Nobody knows what the final death toll from the Mexico City earthquakes was, but after what I saw I know it was well over the estimate of 25 people dead.

As bad as it was in Mexico City, it’s multiple times worse in Burma. Mexico had an earthquake which is clearly a disaster, but a cyclone is worse. You have rain, high winds, storm surge and lots of standing water around afterwards. It destroys bridges, roads, railroad lines and makes the country impassable.

But a least, Mexico City was easy to get to and in the days after the earthquake the weather was warm and sunny. Just think of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans and you’ll get an idea on a small scale of what’s happening in Burma.

You personally can help the cyclone victims in Burma. 100% of your contributions go directly to Burma. My family and I have known Steve and Kathy Gray since 1998. Steve & Kathy have a long-standing relationship with a Burmese pastor, Timothy Laklem of Asian Tribal Ministries, one of the few Christian ministries with access into the country.

TripInsuranceStore.com’s clients and visitors are generous and kind people. Even though budgets are stretched, any amount of money you give will help. No gift is too small. Click Here & You Can Help The Burma Cyclone Victims

PS - I’m not pushing any religious agenda. My purpose is to see people get help without administrative expenses & advertising dollars eating up the donations.

And, if you want to know more about Steve & Kathy Gray, go here: (it’s aways a good idea to know something about any organization you give money to)
http://www.steveandkathygray.com/index.php - you might be suprised to find church leaders who will openly say “Yes, the churches in the USA have problems…”

There will be two adults on this trip…what if one of them cancels but the other one goes…how is that handled? Don

Don, that’s a great question. And it’s a simple answer, too:

As long as the one who cancels can prove they had a non-refundable financial loss on their share of the trip costs, that person can make a claim for their loss.

My answer assumes the reason they cancel their trip is a covered reason and that they follow all the rules for cancelling their trip according to their Travel Insurance policy.

You can go here to see what’s covered.

We’re going to Budapest for 4 days then to Istanbul. Can you give me the names and contact information for hospitals and doctors that you deal with in those cities.

There’s no list of doctors and medical facilities we deal with worldwide. The doctor must be a “Legally Qualified Physician” and it’s best if she or he isn’t a relative of yours. Your Travel Insurance plan will cover any Legally Qualified Medical Facility as long as you seek the initial treatment while you’re on your trip.

Plus, if you need help while on your trip, call your travel insurance plan’s 24 hour Emergency Assistance Phone Number.

I only plan on renting a car for 2 days to drive from Portland, Maine to Gettysburg, PA to pick up my daughter at school. Can I get the Collision Damage Waiver from you for that short a period of time? Bob

Hi Bob,

Yes, you can get the Collision Damage Waiver for just 2 days. In case you didn’t see this, the Collision Damage Waiver covers you for calendar days and not 24 hour rental periods.

For example, if you pick the car up on a Saturday and return it Monday this counts for 3 coverage days making the policy $30 ($9 per day times 3 days plus Travel Guard’s $3 policy fee).

And, even though you clearly said you’re getting a car, I just want you to be aware that in case you meant “car” as a generic term, this Collision Damage Waiver doesn’t cover trucks, not SUVs, passenger vans, nor 4 wheel drive vehicles.

Can I cancel and re-book My trip to reset the pre-existing conditions deadline?

We don’t get this question a lot, but nearly every time we do it’s because a traveler has been advised by their travel agent that they should cancel and re-book their trip so travel insurance will cover their pre-existing conditions. In other words, the clock is reset so the person can buy travel insurance within the pre-existing conditions’ waiver deadline.

Insurance companies are not stupid. All the travel insurance plans I know of address this somewhere in their terms and conditions. They usually have some kind of a phrase that’s along the lines of “this booking must be the first and only booking for the same travel destination and dates”. The travel insurance companies have already anticipated that this advice is out there and they’ve covered it within their policy wording.

I am trying to plan a trip for this summer but it is possible that work commitments may force me to rearrange my travel, but not cancel it. I’m considering buying a “cancel for any reason” plan. My question is what coverage I would then have for the rearranged trip? Would I need to buy new insurance for that? Would the insurance cover airline’s change fees or my having to pay the difference if the new airfare was higher? Thank you for your help. Michelle

Hi Michelle,
One drawback with the “cancel for any reason” plans is just that - trip cancellation. In other words, there’s no option to use it for travel delay or postponing a trip.

While the policy wordings seem to leave this open as a possibility, you can “read between the lines” and see this is the case because the policy wordings all say the trip cancellation needs to occur at least 48 hours or 2 days before your departure date.

Therefore, you’d be left with making a claim on your trip plus be needing to arrange a new trip to go where you want to go. Go here to learn more about Cancel For Any Reason Plans.